


FILE: POSSESSED a Halloween Treat

by ShadowcrestNightingale



Category: Id:Invaded (Anime)
Genre: Gen, Ghosts, Halloween, Haunted Houses, Id well dive, Murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:08:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27293947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowcrestNightingale/pseuds/ShadowcrestNightingale
Summary: Three Brilliant Detectives, one dive into an extremely creepy house that holds a dark secret. But what is protecting it? A sweet-treat one-shot in time for the author's favorite holiday.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 14





	FILE: POSSESSED a Halloween Treat

**Author's Note:**

> A Happy Halloween treat inspired by many a ghoulish influence. This is chock full of references from classic lit, games and movies, and one extremely spooky podcast! If you're curious about any of them--just ask in the comments, some are more vague than others. 
> 
> This one is not connected to the rest of my Subconscious Files

**FILE: POSSESSED**

The walls were actually watching them, there was no denying it. Not that Sakaido noted any actual eyes but the feeling of being observed was overwhelming. Probably some crawl space with peep holes common in these larger old mansions. The closer he came to the basement door, the worse the feeling got.

Hijiriido padded at his side, she hadn't set the brass candlestick down that opened the passageway. “Uhh, are you really going down there?”

“Why wouldn't I?” He shrugged. “This mystery won't solve itself.”

“Well, this whole house is really creepy. And you know what they say about basements.”

He stood on the threshold, a foul breath wafted up from below. Rolling his wrist in the air, he encouraged her to finish.

“Fuck a basement.”

“Oh right, from the fans of ghost stories.” Sakaido chuckled. “Don't worry, they say the same thing about attics too for some reason. There's no such thing as ghosts nor haunted houses. This place is just a large house with an overabundance of character …” he eyed the creepy monster face carved into an archway, “ … odd character, but character none-the-less.”

“Heh, I dunno. There's something about this place that doesn't feel right.” She pointed at a wall. “Didn't we come through a door over there five minutes ago?”

Sakaido turned and scratched his head. Was that a trick of the light? No, she was right. The door was now on a different wall. “Hrm.”

“This is one strange place. Like what's with the staircases that go straight into the ceiling?”

“Or the doors halfway up a wall?”

“The ones that open into a brick wall? Who builds like this?”

“Montresor?” He shrugged, as she side-eyed him. “What I mean by that is, maybe the clue is in the basement near a cask of fine wine.”

“Better hope it's not in an alcove near a pile of bricks.”

“I'll make sure to check for that before entering. Besides, to the best of my knowledge I don't have a thousand transgressions with anyone.”

Just as he was about to turn, another voice called out, “Going down!” A sudden yank on his scarf sent him tumbling backward down the brick passageway's staircase.

The last thing he heard was Hijiriido's angry shout, “Anaido! What did you do that for?”

_**~ID~** _

Narihisago inhaled sharply, catching his forehead briefly in his hand before rubbing his neck, which he had felt snap before the dive ended. He leveled a scowl toward Fukuda's cockpit.

The voices from the Wellside staff carried over the speaker. _“Why did he do that?”_

“ _Classic Fukuda. Extract the other two.”_

“ _Shame. That had been a good dive to.”_

The moment Fukuda came out of the dive, Narihisago snapped, “You son of a bitch! What was that for?”

“You were taking too long. Wasn't time of the essence?”

“Yes, and now we have to start from the beginning!”

Hondomachi facepalmed. “Fukuda, thanks to you we have to figure out that tile sequence all over again to even discover the entrance to the basement in the first place.”

“Shit!” Narihisago sat forward with a start. “That took Hondomachi and I over an hour!”

Fukuda folded his arms. “Well, if someone would just press through the rooms instead of examining every single dust moot for meaning.”

Narihisago pressed his hands against the armrests about to launch out of it. “It's called collecting clues. Better than dumping your teammates down the stairs.”

“Only one of them.” He offered a sweet smile. “I'd never do that to Hondomachi.”

She blinked, adjusting her tie in a move that conveyed less than amusement.

“Why is it that you're the ass who has the ability to remember yourself?”

“You're the one who won't drill a hole in his own head. Do it and you might have the ability, too.” He sighed. “You're making such a fuss over nothing.”

“Nothing? Nothing! If that's the case why I don't break your neck right now and you can see how you like it! This is a small room, I'm sure I can beat the guards to you!”

“ _Narihisago, sit down. Right now!”_

At Momoki's stern voice, he looked to the ceiling, and heaving a sigh resumed his seat in the cockpit.

“ _We're taking another run at this. Fukuda, pull that again and you're going to solitary until Narihisago says you can come out.”_

He offered a slow grin and mouthed, “Never.”

Rolling his eyes, Fukuda sat back in the cockpit. “Fine. I never get to have any fun.”

“ _Once inside I want you tell them who they are. Give them the benefit of their memories. We don't have hours more to spend on repeating sequences.”_

“Really? Oh come on! That ruins my edge.”

“ _Fukuda—do it. Right away, or we'll pull you and—”_

“Yeah yeah, I get it. Solitary. You call the shots. Fine, I'll tell them who they are.” He muttered. “Big babies.”

Hondomachi cracked her knuckles. “Alright, just remember which name to use.”

Narihisago shook his head. “You really like that persona, don't you.”

“You're telling me you don't like Sakaido?”

He offered a slow shrug, a touch of jealousy twinging, after all that was the only part of him that was of value. “He's ok, I guess.”

Fukuda scowled, “A whole lot friendlier than you are, that's why I don't like reminding you. You go back to being cranky.”

“Shut up and do it.”

“See what I mean? This better not be the only reason I've been brought into this.”

“You could do more. It's real simple, try helping for once.”

“ _We're ready up here. Shall we?”_

Eyeing Fukuda, he laid back, hoping this run would go better.

“ _Injecting Sakaido, Hijiriido, and Anaido … again.”_

_**~ID~** _

Laying on the floor, he opened his eyes to a tall blue haired man with an obnoxious grin looking down at him. “Bout time you woke up.” Reaching down the stranger helped him to his his feet.

_Huh? Where the hell is this? I don't know who I am._

“And you too, sleeping beauty.” The blue-haired stranger gripped a petite woman's hand and pulled her upright. All three of them were dressed in trench coats of some form. With his triple ringed pointer finger the stranger touched the right side of her forehead. “Hello, Koharu Hondomachi.”

Beneath the deerstalker cap in a flash a hole opened in the head, shock flared on her face before she reached up and caressed it. “I'm Miyo Hijiriido in here. And you did it, Anaido.”

“Was there ever any doubt?” Anaido grinned and rocked back and forth on his heels.

Confusion remained, “Did what?”

She looked over at him before turning a frustrated glare up at Anaido. “You didn't tell **him**?”

Holding out his hands, he sighed. “I was about to.”

“Never mind.” She grabbed his hand commanding his attention. “Your name is Akihito Narihisago.”

Instantly everything returned to him, like a torrent of water rushing to fill a glass. He staggered back a step, nearly tripping over Kaeru's prone body. They'd already been here, wandering around this strange house for hours on end before … the basement!

Anaido tapped his shoulder. “Sooo, which is it, Sakaido or Narihisago?”

Securing both ends of his scarf, he eyed Anaido accusingly. “I honestly don't care.”

He clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Let's keep this simple, Sakaido it is!”

At the overly cheery disposition Sakaido scowled. “Let's get a move on, we have a mystery to solve.”

The ill lit foyer left much to be desired. Perhaps it was the staircase immediately to the left of the locked front door that led right up into the ceiling. _Less than helpful._ Not the only strange thing about this place. The color palette reminded him of a murder scene. Shades of reds, the highlight colors bone-like ivory and a variety of hues that hinted at other bodily fluids. All of this with very little gilding, simple furniture, limited décor on the walls, no portraits. Tools and half finished construction seemed to be in every corridor. He'd noticed all this the first time they'd been through here. This was a huge mansion of a place with more rooms than he had counted. He was sure Anaido would have cataloged that info, but he wasn't in the mood to ask. After all, did it really matter?

The layout made no sense, hallways vanished turning into rooms that connected to one another. Twists and turns like some obscure labyrinthian house constructed straight out of the mind of a deranged architect. Sakaido half expected to open a door and find himself staring out into thin air, several stories up even if he hadn't set one foot on a stair.

As they wove their way back through the house, Anaido yammered on, “Oh this is like that game … Clue!”

Sakaido didn't look back. “I'd like to make a guess, Anaido did it in the basement stairwell with my scarf.”

“Dude. That was cold, man!”

He eyed him over his shoulder. “You did _just_ that on the previous run.”

“Heheh, oh yeah.” he held his hands up mock apologetically. “I forgot, your memories are now intact.”

“Exactly. Pull anything I start throwing numbers at you.”

Anaido's tight throat let out a squeal. “That's really brutal.”

“Don't look at me. You get what you give.”

_**~ID~** _

“Alright,” Hijiriido gave a tile on the wall a quarter turn before pushing it back in, “that's the eleventh one. Sakaido?”

Up on a winding staircase in the library he reached over as far as he could grabbing at a tile with what looked like the claw marks of a beast marred into it. There wasn't a lot of leverage from this angle as he grunted and turned it. “And … twelve!”

He dashed down the staircase as Hijiriido offered him a grin and pulled out the brass candlestick. The gears behind the wall engaged opening the hidden passage. “You know, that was a whole lot easier this time.”

“Helps that we knew which ones were the important ones and didn't have to do process of elimination this time around. Of course not real comforting that they had claw marks on them.”

Anaido stood behind him, causing Sakaido to hastily side step, on guard. “Could be that door was locking a beast away. Listen, that does sound like breathing.”

“Heard it last time.”

“You did? Why didn't you mention it?”

Sakaido poked him in the chest. “Because you slung shot me down the stairs.”

“Did you see anything?”

Sakaido rolled his eyes. “The dark.”

Striking a match from the desk, Hijiriido lit the candle. A soft glow pierced the gloom. “Let's go.” She led the way.

Anaido stood with his hands in his pockets. From the top of the stairs the two eyed one another, at last Sakaido gestured. “You first.”

“Come on, I won't do it again.”

He narrowed the glare and pointed.

With a sigh, Anaido tipped a pebble of debris down the step, it echoed as it clicked it's way down the brick passage. Water dripped down the walls as a chill effused the air. Dank and moldy, it was an old foundation.

The candle's faint light battled with the darkness, catching the edges of passageways.

“Well, this is one of the more elaborate drives to kill I've ever wandered through. But just like above,” he pointed to a doorway with an earthen wall behind it, “there is no logic to the layout. It's disjointed.”

Hijiriido cupped a hand over her hole and gazed around. “This isn't an illusion. This is how it's supposed to look.”

“Heh.” Anaido folded his arms, “sure is a strange way to build a house. Did you see that room on the main floor that didn't have a wall? It just went straight to the outside. Never seen anything like that.”

“We have,” she muttered while searching through the candle light.

“You have? Where?”

A sound, like a low growl shook the air. For a moment, no one moved. Sakaido pointed the direction it seemed to come from, a room down the arched corridor.

Anaido whispered, “I told you, a beast.”

She sniffed the air and shook her head. “No, can't be. There's no scent.”

Crouching down, Sakaido studied the dirt floor. “And no paw prints. Not even a footprint besides ours. A beast wouldn't live without tending.”

“Come on, man. This is an id well. It doesn't have to follow logic.”

Hijiriido lifted a shoulder. “Technically true. He has a point.”

“Not solving a damn thing standing here yammering. Come on. Let's go see his _beast_.”

Peering around the corner into the howling of the cavern, they came upon a large roll topped drafting desk that seemed out of place in the drafty root cellar. Opening it revealed it was crammed full of drafts. Setting the candlestick aside, Hijiriido joined the guys in stretching them out. Wordlessly they assembled the puzzle on the floor as the drafts interlocked, floor after floor, room after room.

Anaido cocked his head. “Wait, these two rooms on this page … this isn't right. This one was right beside the one on this page. And that other one, that's a different floor.”

“Hrm, that's right. This one here claims the foyer's supposed to have a room at the top of that staircase.”

“Guys, take a look at this. Isn't this the room where we entered the basement?”

Sakaido rubbed his chin. “It is … what the heck is it doing on the third floor?”

“You ask me,” Anaido shifted the drafts around, “this place was built by a failed architect.”

She gave a short laugh, “Or a really indecisive one.”

Sakaido took over shifting the drafts, sorting them by age via the page discoloration. “Of course there is no signature, no dates, but it looks like this here was the original house and there have been a series of additions.”

“Twelve?” Hijiriido cupped the side of her with the hole. “Yes. Twelve … and it's not complete.”

“Comforting.” Something bumped into Sakaido. He reached back and swatted. “Anaido, knock it off!”

“Guys … ummm … ”

“What?” Standing up he cocked his head. “Why do you look like you've seen a ghost?”

He pointed with a shaking finger. “Cause … I did!”

Deep in the corridor an ethereal glowing woman floated, her form vanished at her shins. A silken drapery cord knotted about her neck. She glared at them.

Hijiriido gaped. “That isn't Kaeru.”

“No.” Sakaido reached back for the candle, not taking his eyes off the specter. “And I get the picture she wants us here.”

As if in answer, a gust that felt like a hot breath pelted them from behind. When they turned around, carved into the earth wall were the words, GET OUT!

At that moment the ghost woman rushed toward them. Scrambling, they tore up the stairs leaving a path of darkness behind them.

_**~ID~** _

“Who said ghosts weren't real?”

Still hastily picking their way through the maze of rooms, Sakaido rolled his eyes. “I didn't know this was an id well when I said that. Anything's possible in one of these.”

“Well, clearly that's true. That was an honest to goodness bitch in white.”

Hijiriido elbowed Anaido. “That's not nice. You don't know she was hostile.”

“Uhh, she tried to rush us.”

“Still, you can't just judge by appearance—” A butcher's cleaver quivered in the wall where it landed right between her and Anaido.

His eyes met hers. “Can I judge that?”

“That's fair game.” She followed the path of the blade to the white-clad footless woman floating toward them, murder in her eyes.

Sakaido tugged their arms. “Let's go! Now!” As the fled out into the long corridor that should take them to the foyer, he called back, “In case you didn't notice—that wasn't the one in the basement.”

They skidded to a halt. Anaido pointed. “What about her?”

To their shock there was another specter, this one holding a rifle.

“Ohhhh great! Whose idea was it to send us into these things unarmed?”

“Anaido … we're killers.”

“And they're not?”

Hijiriido stomped a foot. “Splitting hairs! She's about to split us open—run!” She shoved them into a doorway.

“Guys, why are we running?” Anaido laughed. “This is kinda silly. If we die here we'll just wake up in the chamber.”

Hijiriido grunted. “Yeah, but we still experience it, which sucks if it's preventable.”

“Besides,” Sakaido added, “it's a principle at the moment. No sense in starting over.”

Dashing in what seemed to be the right way in far too short of a distance they emerged in the foyer, slamming against the front door. Anaido tore the door open about to leave … but he stared at a brick wall. “What the hell? You want us to leave but you block the door?”

As if in answer, the bricks cracked spelling GET OUT!

“Aaaaaahhhhhheeeeeh! We want to! How about letting us? Where was that room without the wall?”

The house let out a growling groan.

Hijiriido grabbed the end of Anaido's coat and yanked him back. “We're not getting anywhere standing here.”

The door frame cracked. Sakaido stepped back into a guarded stance. “Guys. Get away from there!”

In a mad dash they raced away from the falling debris, as the unrelenting crack chased them up the stairs.

Sakaido snapped, “The rooms, look! They're rearranging!”

“Why are we going further into the house that's trying to eat us!”

He didn't answer Anaido, out of the corner of his eyes he spotted more white gleams drifting toward them. Hijiriido pressed closer to the path they were heading as they skidded around a corner and took another staircase. “We're being herded!”

“Where?” Anaido huffed, running out of breath.

“Up.”

A banister rail slammed into the wall, they had to jump over it.

Anaido grunted, “This house is trying to kill us!”

The stairs creaked beneath their hasty treads. The boards began to separate. Sakaido lept up, the edges of his sneaker caught the landing. Hijiriido grabbed the tail of his trench coat and hauled herself up. Spinning around, Sakaido reached out and clasped Anaido's wrist as he began to plummet into the void left behind. Anaido stared down, panting. “Whoa, that was close … why did you save me?”

“Because,” Sakaido grunted as he hauled him up, “I don't leave teammates to die.”

Back on his feet, Anaido grinned. “You're so cool!”

“Aheh. Remember that next time, and don't try to off me for your own amusement.” A long corridor stretched before them. “Well, we're stuck on the third floor until we find another way down.”

Room after room proved to hold no answers, only eerie shadows. They found themselves staring up a long winding staircase leading up into a bell tower.

Hijiriido scratched her head. “This doesn't look like a way out.” She stepped backward, only to stiffen, eyes widening.

Catching her tension, Sakaido noted that there was a soft glow growing brighter. They were surrounded.

Twelve ethereal women in long flowing white gowns slowly pressed upon them, a variety of weapons in their hands.

There was no choice—they had to go up. Inching upward, the boards creaked and groaned on the rickety old winding staircase. They walked backward, the spirits closing in on them.

The knotted rope pull tapped Sakaido's shoulder. He stared up into the underside of an immense bronze bell, hanging two stories above his head, swaying in the opening at the top.

Below the ghosts lingered in the mob, bustling at the bottom of the stairs. Their eyes hungrily staring upward at them.

Hijiriido glanced around. “We're not going to get out of here this way. This staircases ends eventually. What are they doing?” Her eyes caught something carved into the wood of a beam. “Hey, look at this! _Loamhedge_. What the heck is that supposed to mean?”

Anaido glanced up to Sakaido, “That mean anything to you?”

“No.”

Slowly, on its own, the bell pull started to shift in a pattern, growing more momentum. All three of them looked up with trepidation. The clacker began to follow coming closer and closer to the sides of the bell.

Sakaido took a step back, a bead of sweat on his brow. “ _Therefore, never send for whom the bell tolls …_ ”

Anaido finished with wide eyes, “ _… it tolls for thee!_ ”

BONG!

They covered their ears, the beams cracked and shattered from the vibration. The large bell plummeted down taking everything with it into the arms of the waiting ghosts.

_**~ID~** _

Narihisago gasped as he opened his eyes to the dim chamber. This was familiar—blessedly! Taking a few deep breaths he glanced around. The other two shifted in their cockpits, clearly pulled at the same time.

Fukuda muttered, “Well, that place is gonna leave a psychological scar.”

Leaning forward, Hondomachi rubbed her head. “I do not wanna go back in that one.”

“That makes three of us.”

“ _Narihisago, there wasn't by chance any names for those ghosts?”_

He laid back and closed his eyes. “Sorry, was a little to busy trying not to get slaughtered by the murder house to notice.”

Hondomachi exhaled a long sigh. “Tell us you got enough.”

“ _Loamhedge is a manor. Matsuoka is actually heading there now. Good work, we should be able to do the rest.”_

Fukuda sat forward. “Hey, Narihisago? You ever been in a dive like that?”

He shook his head. “No. A house trying to kill me was a rare first.”

_**~ID~** _

Momoki sat at the interrogation table with a tablet. Behind him stood Hondomachi. Both Narihisago and Fukuda were cuffed and seated on the other side, eyes locked on the Wellside Director.

“So, turns out Loamhedge was built by a serial widower. A man named Owari. Skeletons were discovered under the floor of the basement. Every time he took a wife, she would disappear and he would add another room to his house … right over the top of her freshly dug grave. In time it became a sprawling mansion.”

Narihisago lifted a shoulder, “Looks like he had more than skeletons in his closet.”

“Twelve of them. When he was arrested he as getting ready for his thirteenth marriage. So, you guys saved her from a gruesome fate.

Fukuda raised an eyebrow. “Wait … you mean, those bitches in white … ?”

“Weren't bitches.” Hondomachi glared at him. “They were his victims trying to push us toward the name.”

“They could have just asked us to follow them!”

Narihisago cracked a grin. “They really got to you.”

Fukuda shook his head, trying to conceal it. “I just … I thought I read them right. They looked all … murdery.”

“Murdery.” Narihisago chuckled. “You know, the reason for that was probably right in their hands. They were carrying their own cause of death.”

“Oh yeah. Suppose that would make me angry too.”

Hondomachi gave a sly smile. “Hey guard, bring in a drill.”

Fukuda blinked, his fingers splaying. “Uhhh, why are you looking at me like that? Hondomachi—one hole is enough, remember? I don't want another one!”

Narihisago snickered into his cuffed hands.

“What's so funny!”

“How much you've gotten into her, how does it feel to be on the receiving end!”


End file.
